We’ve already been waiting years for new Transformers and Star Trek movies, and now we’re going to have to wait a bit more. Paramount has reportedly delayed the upcoming Transformers film, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, a whole year, from June 24, 2022 to June 9, 2023. That was the day a new Star Trek movie was set to open — but that’s now moved from June 9, 2023 to December 22, 2023.
Why the moves? Well, probably a number of reasons. Transformers has been filming for some time now but with just over six months until that initial release date, one would venture to guess it was just going to be a little too rushed. And then, once Paramount moved Transformers to the weekend Star Trek was dated, it had to move Star Trek. And since Lucasfilm is now unlikely to release its upcoming Star Wars film Rogue Squadron on December 22, 2023, that probably looked like a really good place for that other major Star franchise.
There’s also just such a huge backup of movies because of, well, 2020. Since virtually no big blockbusters were released last year, the many titles that got pushed are reconfiguring their release dates now — which will result in more moves so they don’t devour each other. This happened a few weeks ago when Disney moved all of its Marvel films. That basically started a domino effect on the schedule which impacted some other major movies, such as Indiana Jones 5. Studios don’t invest hundreds of millions of dollars on potentially multi-billion dollar products and then have their own movies competing with them a few weeks before and after.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is directed by Steven Caple Jr., and stars Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback. It’s a ‘90s-set Transformers movie which will have most of your favourite Autobots and Decepticons, but also Maximals, Predacons, and even Terrorcons. You can read a bunch more about it here. The new Star Trek is much more mysterious. We know that J.J. Abrams is once again producing and that WandaVision creator Matt Shankman is at the helm. The Hollywood Reporter says the current script by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet is being rewritten by Josh Friedman and Cameron Squires.
Editor’s Note: Release dates within this article are based in the U.S., but will be updated with local Australian dates as soon as we know more.